Δεν υπάρχει καμία αμφιβολία για το γεγονός ότι οι πωλήσεις της Mercedes-Benz βρίσκονται σε ανοδική πορεία και αυτό, σε αρκετά μεγάλο βαθμό, οφείλεται στα compact αυτοκίνητα της. Κυρίως στην A-Class και την CLA. Έτσι, ακριβώς όπως έγινε και με την A-Class στα τέλη του Οκτωβρίου 2012, έτσι και τώρα, η Mercedes-Benz προσθέτει μία ακόμα βάρδια στο εργοστάσιο στην Ουγγαρία, εκεί όπου κατασκευάζονται οι CLA, για να καλύψει τη ζήτηση. Το εργοστάσιο στο Kecskemet, ήδη δουλεύει με δύο βάρδιες και μερικά Σάββατα αλλά σύντομα, θα λειτουργεί στο μέγιστο των δυνατοτήτων του.
Μέχρι στιγμής, οι πωλήσεις των “μικρών” Mercedes, σημειώνουν αύξηση της τάξης του 29.7% για τους πρώτους δύο μήνες του 2014 με την εταιρία να περιμένει περαιτέρω αύξηση μέσα στη χρονιά, χάρη και στο λανσάρισμα του τέταρτου (A-Class, CLA και B-Class τα άλλα τρία) μοντέλου της, της GLA.
[Πηγή: Mercedes-Benz]
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Mercedes-Benz Kecskemét Plant to Produce with Additional Third Shift Beginning in May
Stuttgart / Kecskemét, Mar 18, 2014
New Mercedes-Benz compacts with continuous high demand
Compact car plants operate at full steam
Dr. Dieter Zetsche: “Most recently, our production has hardly kept up with the dynamic sales development of our compacts. That’s why we are now switching our second compact car plant to three-shift operations as well – this allows us to serve the wishes of our customers around the world even better and timelier.”
The Mercedes-Benz Kecskemét plant will introduce a third, additional shift in May. With this, further production capacities for the new generation of Mercedes-Benz compact cars will be available. The Mercedes-Benz plant in Rastatt, Germany has been operating in three-shift mode since October 2012 already.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars: “Most recently, our production has hardly kept up with the dynamic sales development of our compacts. That’s why we are now switching our second compact car plant to three-shift operations as well – this allows us to serve the wishes of our customers around the world even better and timelier.”
With regard to the contributions of the staff both at Rastatt and Kecskemét, Zetsche added: “We have the right products at the right time, and we also have an excellent production team. With its great dedication and the top-notch quality delivered on a daily basis, this team is one of the key reasons we’re able to convince more and more customers with our A- and B-Class, the CLA and the new GLA.”
Production in Rastatt and Kecskemét continues to run at full steam. Due to high customer demand, both plants had already worked numerous extra Saturday shifts last year. This flexible operating mode, which is closely aligned to the sales organization’s planning, will be continued in the current year independently of the introduction of three-shift operations at Kecskemét.
About the new generation of Mercedes-Benz compact cars
The new generation of Mercedes-Benz compact cars continues to be in great demand: In February, Mercedes-Benz sold 28,211 vehicles of the A-Class, B-Class and CLA-Class, more than a quarter more than in the same month of the previous year (+27.4%). Since the start of the year, 55,409 customers have opted for a compact car of the brand (+29.7%). Further growth is expected through the launch of the fourth compact model: The GLA came to the European market on March 15th. In the last year already, Mercedes-Benz sold more compact cars than ever before: All in all 371,399 customers opted for a compact car bearing the three-pointed star, 64.0% more than in the previous year 2012. In addition to the A- and B-Class, the compact four-door CLA coupe met with an excellent response. Especially with the A-Class and the CLA-Class the brand specifically opens itself up to new customer groups: One out of every two Mercedes customers of these model series previously owned a vehicle from another manufacturer.
About the production network of the new generation of Mercedes-Benz compact cars
The new Mercedes-Benz compacts are produced in the flexible production network of the plants in Rastatt, Germany, and Kecskemét, Hungary. The high degree of flexibility is on the one hand due to the joint architecture of the new compacts, thanks to which all models at each location can be built in any order and volume. On the other hand, models produced at several locations serve as levers allowing the plants to breathe and to allocate units optimally in the production network, always according to market demand for individual models.
Production of the B-Class started in both plants as the first product of the new generation (Rastatt: September 2011, Kecskemét: March 2012). The new A-Class has been built in Rastatt since July 2012. As the second product from Kecskemét, production of the CLA started in January 2013. Production of the compact SUV GLA began in Rastatt in December 2013. In total, Daimler has invested about 2 billion euros over several years, of which (including 2013) 1.2 billion at the Rastatt core plant and 800 million euros to build the new plant in Kecskemét. At the end of 2013, the number of staff in Rastatt was at about 6.600, in Kecskemét at about 3,400. Additional production capacities for the A-Class have been available to Daimler since August 2013 with the contract manufacturing at the Finnish production specialist Valmet Automotive, where more than 100,000 vehicles of the model series are planned to roll off the line until 2016. Furthermore, local production of the GLA for the Chinese market will begin in 2015 at BBAC’s (Beijing Benz Automotive Corporation, joint venture of Daimler and its Chinese partner BAIC) production location in Beijing
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